Preserving South African Musical History
Vocalist who began her singing career singing backing vocals for The Gents before joining Roxan and then X-Rated during the 1980s. In 1991 she released the solo album One Woman, including the single “Tender Heart” which received some radio play in South Africa. In the 1990s she focused more on jingle and session work before resurfacing with The B.A.N.D in the early 2000s.
Real name John Griffith. Born in Ireland, but moved to South Africa as a child.
Met Jonathan Handley at Wits Medical school and they formed Slither.
Concerned that the South African Medical and Dental Council would strike them off the roll if they became famous they both changed their names! So they became Jon Roxi and John Ireland.
John Ireland pursued a solo career and Slither went on to become the Radio Rats.
John Ireland’s first single was a rendition of “Greensleeves” with words called “You’re living inside my head” which was released in 1978 along with the album Thinking Aloud (1978).
He went on to release several more singles including “I like” (1982) which received widespread radio play in South Africa. He released five more albums: Revelation (1980), John Ireland (1982), She Speaks To Me (1983), Just Desserts (1986) and Lonely Man (2004).
Born in Johannesburg in the 1940s and formed his first band, The Dukes, in 1961. He had further success in the early 60s with his band Johnny And The G-Men.
In 1963, he released his first solo album, This Is Johnny and the single “Tulips For ‘Toinette”
When the Dukes broke up in 1966 he left for England where, in 1967, he formed the short-lived Floribunda Rose with other South African musicians.
The following year he formed another band with South African musicians, Scrugg. When Scrugg broke up in 1969 Kongos went solo, releasing the album Confusions About A Goldfish (1969) and Kongos (1972). The latter album included the successful singles “Tokoloshe Man” and “He’s Gonna Step On You Again”.
He continued to release singles infrequently throughout the 1970s and 1980s but increasingly focused on writing film music.
Singer songwriter who was born in England, grew up in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He became fascinated with Zulu music, dance and other aspects of Zulu culture and struck up a partnership with Sipho Mchunu.
The two performed as the duo ‘Johnny and Sipho’ in the 1970s before forming the band Juluka in 1979. During this time Clegg studied Anthropology and completed his Masters degree, and embarked on a parallel career as an academic. When it was clear that he could make a living from music he resigned from academia and focused full time on music.
After Juluka broke up in 1985 Johnny Clegg released a solo album Third World Child with a more electronic and international sound than his music with Juluka. The single ‘Third World Child’ received widespread airplay in South Africa.
In 1986 he formed the band Savuka which Clegg dissolved in 1993.
He then reignited his solo career while also reforming Juluka with Sipho Mchunu for one album and occasional live performances. Between 2002 and 2017 he released four solo albums.
In 2019 he died of pancreatic cancer.
Born and raised in Athlone, Cape Town his music career began with the release of his first single, “Please stay” in 1975 when he was just 14 years old. It was a cover of the Drifters song and did very well in the South African charts.
He released further singles and a solo album, I Love How You Love Me (1975) in the 1970s but his solo career took a backseat when he joined Pacific Express in 1978.
In the 1980s his solo career reignited with the release of the Crossroads (1983) album and the single “I’ll be waiting for your love” (1984).
In 1987 his single “Lies” was an international success, charting in both the USA and UK. He has continued to release albums ever since and in the 1980s.
He relocated to London and then moved to California.
Felicia Marian, Thoka Ndlozi and Anneline Malebo were solo singers who came together in 1977 to form Joy.
They achieved high profile success from 1979-1981 releasing two albums (Paradise Road in 1980 and High Life in 1981) and their single “Paradise Road” topped the Springbok Radio charts for 9 weeks in 1980.
They broke up in 1981.